Freedom to Believe in Pakistan: Comparison with an arch-rival in the Middle East

The following article written by me was not published as it tackled a so called “sensative issue” . It seem like it is becoming a trend that anything portraying Israel in a good light and anything remotely suggesting freethinking beyond Islam has difficulty getting published, even if it is something that we can learn from. 

Are we free? The answer to that question is normally “Yes”. The reasons given for that affirmative answer are usually: we are free from the shackles of the colonial British and we are free from the united sub-continent, so we are free. According to the Two-Nation Theory that we study all through our school lives,  essentially, we as Muslims, would be a minority in United India and our right to practice our religion would be taken away because Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations.

So today, in 2011, are we actually free? Or this is just a fallacy? In this article I would refrain from a long tirade of blaming the corruption of our leaders for our perilous history and would invite readers to look at their own selves. I would specifically focus on freedom of thought and belief.

Author Yoram Kaniuk allowed to state "without religion" on his Israeli Identity card

I would quote an example from our arch ideological rivals, Israel. Israel has a strict Jewish identity. Even one of the pre-existing demands of the Israeli Government to kick-start negotiations for Palestinian freedom is the recognition of Israel as a Jewish State by the Palestinian Authority. So, in a nutshell, they are very serious about their religious identity, both at government policy level, as well as, society. In this same Jewish State, the famous Sapir Prize winning author, Yoram Kaniuk, was granted the freedom to identify himself as, “without religion” on his identity card by a Tel Aviv district court. After the court ruling, many Israelis gathered to sign a petition to declare themselves as “without religion” and the court’s decision was hailed as a big step towards freedom of thought. Let me make this clear, “without religion” does not mean, atheist or agnostic, it just means what it says “without religion”. There were no sweeping protests across the country for the decision, nothing was burnt down, and Yoram Kaniuk, is still alive and does not have 27 bullets in his chest.

Let’s come back to Pakistan. Pakistan was created on the basis of a religion and also we thrive on our religious identity. The constitution claims to be based on Islam and we are called the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Academically speaking, both Israel and Pakistan are religion based ideological states (although created in different circumstances, but that is not the focus of this article). I will put up the question to the readers. Is it possible that the freedom that was given to Yoram Kaniuk, possible in Pakistan? Will a court allow a person to put that in his/her passport? Keeping in mind the fate of Salman Taseer (Governer of the Punjab province assasinated for supporting change in the blasphemy law), I believe that freedom of thought does not exist in Pakistan. Forget about someone declaring oneself as “without religion” which would instantly spring a plethora of “punishable by death” fatwas and will make the “death to the apostate” brigade all hot and heavy. Just airing your views about a man-made law about religion would qualify you for free 27 bullets in your chest (case in point – Salman Taseer). Just having a different ideology within the same religion might lead you to death (consider the fate of Shia Muslims killed on their way to Iran). Or just read the constitution regarding the rules about Ahmadis. I would really urge readers to take a look at Sections 298(b) and 298(c) of the penal code of the constitution and you will see archaic and medieval nature of the law.

So, again I ask, are we actually free? I would term our freedom of thought and belief as a conditional freedom. Free, as long as it along a certain belief system. Freedom, according to Merrium Webster dictionary is “the quality or state of being free: as the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action”. All three conditions necessary to be absent to be fundamentally free are present in Pakistan. “Necessity” to believe in a certain way, “Coercion” if one does not believe in a certain way, and “Constraint” if one does want to believe in a different way. Essentially our minds are not free, what do you think?

Disclaimer: The reason for making a comparison with Israel is solely because my argument is based on both of our country’s fundamental foundations based on religion. I am not trying to prove they are better or worse because that would be a topic of another article. 

 

By Ahmed Αμονας Aziz

An attempt to understand the people we Muslims blame for all that is wrong

The following article written by me was not published as it tackled a so called “sensative issue”

“It is the Jews’ fault”, “the Jews’ control the world”, “Jews are evil”, “Jews are kafirs” – We are used to hearing these words in our part of the world. It has become a mantra for conspiracy theorists like Zaid Hamid and basically each and every preacher in our mosques, teacher in our schools and friends in our circles in Pakistan. Why do we blame the Jews for everything? Are these accusations based on fact or hearsay? Or are we grossly generalizing the actions of the State of Israel and the Jewish people? Have we ever tried to examine the insecurity that the State of Israel uses to perpetrate the injustices in besieged Gaza and the occupied territory of West Bank?  In this article I would like to present some history of the Jewish people so we can actually know the people that we blame and understand them as human beings. The purpose of this article is not in any way to justify the barbarism of IDF (Israel Defense Force) and the actions of the State of Israel but to understand the people we blame for everything. Actions of a state, government or an organization does not mean that they are exacting the collective will of the people, exactly like actions of Al-Qaeda, Taliban or Hezbollah does not represent the collective will of the Muslim people.  We expect them to understand us, our actions and our suffering so it is imperative for us to also endeavor to understand them as our fellow human beings. It is not a one way street.

Auschwitz death camp

Firstly, I would like to point out right at the onset that complete Jewish history cannot be covered in one article so I would try and cover the main areas and if readers want to explore there is a plethora of literature available. Secondly, I would not cover the World War Two Jewish Holocaust (systematic Genocide of 6 million Jews just on the basis of race and religion by Nazi Germany) because readers might already know about it as it is an extensively covered subject in the media. The people who deny it cannot provide any evidence and only base their argument on religious and nationalistic rhetoric. It is proven and it did happen.

 

 

Jews under Roman Rule

Areas of Jewish Settlement under the Roman Empire

The Jewish people of Judaea (modern day West Bank and Jerusalem) were under the Roman rule essentially from 63 BC to early 300s AD. They were mostly hostile towards the empire and a feeling of mistrust prevailed even though Kind Herod of Judaea rebuilt many of the Jewish cities and also reconstructed the Jewish temples in one of the most extraordinary structures of its time. Shortly after the death of King Herod, Judaea came under direct Roman rule and continuous suppression of Jewish life resulted in a full scale revolt in 66 BC. Roman forces inevitable defeated the Jewish forces completely destroying Jerusalem. The temple was also razed to the ground. This was a catastrophic event and according the historian Josephus Flavius, more than a hundred thousand Jews perished in the siege and thousands sold into slavery. Later the Romans renamed Judaea and Jerusalem as Palaestinia and Aelia Capitolina, respectively.

Jews under Christian Rule 

This is a vast subject; therefore I would focus on the Crusades and the Catholic Rule in Iberian Peninsula. The essential purpose of the crusades was to take back the holy land from Muslim occupation. One of the most important aspects that we usually tend to ignore is that the Crusades were also a war against the all the unbelievers or infidels, which essentially were Muslims and the Jews. Our history books in the Middle East usually ignore that fact that on the way to Jerusalem, there were always pogroms conducted by the Crusaders against the Jews. Massive pogroms (massacres) occurred during the 1st Crusade of 1096 AD of Jewish communities on the Rhine and Danube rivers. Anti-Jewish sentiment at that time was on a high in Europe because of the accusation of the Catholic Church which held the Jews responsible for the Jesus Christ’s Crucifixion. This can be termed as a fallacy because Jesus Christ was convicted by the Romans for crucifixion and was conducted by Pontius Pilate who was the prefect of Judaea and no historical or archaeological exists of a Jewish conspiracy.

An artist's portrayal of the Spanish Inquisition

The Jewish community of the Iberian Peninsula came under the wrath of Christian rulers of Spain after the fall of the Moors in the region. Many Jews converted to Christianity to escape the barbarism but stayed Jewish at heart. This can be marked as the start of the Spanish Inquisitions whose main purpose was to root out this fake Christianity from the converted Jews and Muslims. The inquisitions were intensified after the decree for the expulsion of the Muslims and the Jews was issues in 1492 and early 1500s. Jews faced the brunt of the inquisitions and horrifying stories of torture and murders exist. None of the Christian nations would receive them and while on their journey’s outside the Iberian Peninsula Jews faced murder, rape and theft at the hands of Christian robbers.

 

 

Jews under Muslim Rule 

Ottoman Jews

The Muslim Rule of Spain and the heyday of Ottoman Empire can be termed as “good times” for the Jewish people where they enjoyed many rights and worked with the bureaucracy and the Muslim rulers with a certain amount of harmony. In Muslim Spain, although they had the status of Dhimmi, they worked with the monarchy and Christian counterparts for the advancement of science and knowledge. Ottoman Salonika became is prime place of refuge for the Jews expelled from Spain under Christian Rule.

An artist's portrayal of the Granada Massacre

This does not mean that it was a continuous era of happy times for the Jewish people under the Muslim Rulers. In the year 641 AD, early Muslim rulers decreed that Jews and Christians should be forcibly removed from all but the southern and eastern fringes of Hijaz. These were the Jews of the Khaybar oasis in the north and the Christians of Najran. The last remnants of these two monotheistic religions were removed from the Arabian Peninsula by the year 650. From this point onwards the Holy Land of the Hijaz was forbidden to non-Muslim. Only the Red Sea port of Jeddah was allowed as quarantine and some Jewish and Christian Merchants conducted trade. The modern day version of this rule prohibits non-Muslims from entering only Mecca and Medina.

 

Later in history there have been instances of pogroms against the Jewish people under Muslim rule. The 1066 Grenada Massacre took about 4000 lives. Continuous persecution of the Jews existed in other Arab areas of Syria and most of northern Africa. In 1400, the Jews of Aleppo were herded into their synagogues and slaughtered and the young women raped by soldiers of Central Asian Islamic conqueror Tamerlane (Taimur Lung). In 1465, Arab mobs in Fez (2nd largest city of Morocco) slaughtered thousands of Jews, after a Jewish deputy minister allegedly treated a Muslim woman badly. This caused a ripple effect of massacres all throughout Morocco. Similar injustices continued in the Persian cities of Isfahan and Bukhara. In World War Two, Haji Amin’s (spiritual leader of the Palestinians) support of Hitler’s Genocide against the Jews also does not score any brownie points for the Muslims.

Conclusion

Palestinian loss of land 1946 - 2000

Thousands of years of persecution do not give the State of Israel the right for carrying out suppression in the Palestinian Territories and occupations of Lebanon at different times. It does not give them a right to builds settlements in West Bank against international law and it does not allow them to besiege Gaza as much as they can. Their actions cannot be justified by their sufferings in the past. My purpose to emphasize that we make an effort to know the people we blame for everything as we expect them to know us. Our claim for the Land of Palestine is always based on the fact that it was our Qibla and the Prophet descended to the heavens and met all the prophets. Well, guess what, it is a site for the 1st Jewish Temple and birth of Christ so they can make equal claim to it. At this point, the official position of the Palestinian Authority is the right position and Israel’s actions are just out of stubbornness. If people continue to claim the land on the basis of religions the solutions can never be reached.

Having said that I am urging readers to read about the people we hate and blame and try to understand them. Leave the political and religious bickering aside and have a look at them without a sectarian bias. May be then we finally can understand each other and talk like sensible people and reach solutions on our differences.

 

By Ahmed Αμονας Aziz

Hating Terry Jones is bad for Muslims – The Express Tribune Blog

 

 

It’s the same old cycle. Once again an insignificant person does something radically stupid in the West, and we in the East go on to a killing rampage.

I am talking about the burning of the Holy Quran incident carried out on March 20, 2011 by Terry Jones, an American Christian Evangelist pastor from Florida. This is the same man who threatened to burn the Holy Quran on 9/11 but relented once he got the media hype he wanted. 

 

Spreading the stupid

In the immediate aftermath of the burning, I thought that the Muslim world had shown restraint and ignored Jones’ thoughtless acts, as pointed out in the Tribune editorial a week later.

But a belated reaction started on April 1, when protestors overpowered their way into the UN Mission compound in Mazaar-e-Sharif and killed seven foreign workers, beheading two of them.

On April 2, nine people were killed in Kandahar and three in suicide attacks in Kabul.

Does this turn of events ring a bell?

There is a similarity with the publication of cartoons of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) in a Danish newspaper in 2005, which led to the death of more than 50 people, most of whom were Muslims. Both the acts were simple acts of provocation–more so, the burning of the Holy Quran.

Five minutes of infamy

Terry Jones is an insignificant pastor of a small, radical church in Florida. He preaches the most radical form of Christianity, which most of the Christian world does not even agree with. He is intelligent enough to study our reaction to the Danish cartoon incident in 2005, so he knows that his antics, he wilk make him famous. His name will be mentioned on news channels across the globe, his church will get more funding from radical Christians and he won’t lose a thing.

He understands that we Muslims have a tendency to lose our heads. Over the last couple of days we have been proving him right. Their is a high correlation between the intensity of our reactions,his stupid acts and his fame.

Who suffers in this debacle?

The 50 people who died in the Danish cartoon row and the 19 innocent  people who died in Afghan protests, none of whom had anything to do with Terry Jones and might not even recognize his name. Who knows how many more will die? Jones is still getting famous–even President Obama is talking about him. He is a bigot and his bigotry is getting press because we go inside a UN Mission compound and behead innocent people who have left their families to live in Afghanistan, of all places, and help the local people. Terry Jones is watching the news and basking in his bigotry.

I understand that the protests are limited to Afghanistan for the time being, but I am afraid that they will trickle down to Pakistan and Middle Eastern countries.

My plea is  simple – ignore Terry Jones.

We have other things to protest-protests that will help improve the human condition rather than result in the loss of human life.

Hate towards Terry Jones will lead us to murder innocents and destroy public and private property that hard-working individuals spend their whole lives building, and he will become more famous by the second. But if we ignore him, he will disappear.

 

also published @ Hating Terry Jones is bad for Muslims – The Express Tribune Blog.

Armenian genocide: Millions killed and forgotten

On December 24, 2010, the United States once again avoided diplomatic difficulties with a Nato ally, Turkey. The House of Representatives ended its term by not putting forward a resolution recognising the genocide of the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I. This resolution is unlikely to be passed by the Congress in the next term because the next house speaker, John Boehner, does not support it.

Turkey has always denied the death of 1.5 million Armenian Christians as genocide, blaming it on civil war at the time

According to the Independent, supporters of the resolution had high hopes for it to be passed before the term ended because the outgoing speaker, Nancy Pelosi, had previously supported the resolution.

Turkey is an important ally of the US in the Middle East playing a supporting role in the Iraq War and has helped the US in the past on other war fronts. Turkish governments have always denied the death of 1.5 million Armenian Christians as genocide, blaming it on general anarchy and civil was at that time. However, historians term it as the first holocaust of the 20th century, of which documentary and photographic proof also exists.

Genocide roots in the Ottoman Empire

Within the Ottoman Empire, the Armenians were generally concentrated in the eastern provinces. According to the Dhimmi system in the Ottoman Empire the non-Muslims were subjected to over-taxation and limited legal freedoms. Generally referred to as infidels or unbelievers, they were not considered equal to Muslims. Testimony of a non-Muslim against a Muslim was not admissible in court and their houses could not be higher than their Muslim neighbor’s.

Initial massacres took place under the rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II in the late 19th century. These were called the Hamidiyan massacres in which, according to different historians, 80,000 to 300,000 Armenians were killed.

In 1908, the monarchy had collapsed after the Young Turk Revolution and by 1913 the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP),Ittihad ve Terakki Jemiyeti, emerged at the head of the government in a coup. The CUP had an extreme Turkish nationalistic ideology and was mainly controlled by Enver Pasha, Minister of War, Talat Pasha, Minister of the Interior and Grand Vizier in 1917, and Jemal Pasha, Minister of the Marine.

The resettlement program

I will not go deep into political background of the genocide which occurred during World War I but one of the basic reasons behind it was Ottoman insecurity that the Armenian Christian subjects will support the Russians pushing on in the eastern front of the war. Some historians also credit it to the policies of the government to create a unified and pure “Turkish state.”

In the spring and summer of 1915 Armenians all around the empire were ordered to deport under a fictitious “resettlement program.” Convoys consisting of hundreds of thousands of Armenians from different parts of the empire started towards the Syrian Desert. These convoys were basically death marches because most of the people were subjected to torture, rape and slaughter during their painful journey towards the desert. The government did not make any plans for the provision of food and water and thousands died of starvation and disease. Some evidence of a primitive form of gas chambers also exists, where women and children were put into a cave and the entrance of the cave was set on fire, suffocating the people inside the cave.

The forgotten holocaust

A new “Special Organisation” called the Teshkilâti Mahsusa, was formed as a tool for extermination. Approximated two million Armenians lived in the Ottoman lands in 1915 but by 1918 an estimated 1 million had perished and by 1923 a negligible number of Armenians were left in main Anatolian Turkey.

Photographic and documentary evidence exist of the extermination of the Armenian race from the Ottoman lands.

This Genocide the forgotten holocaust because it was over-shadowed by the killing of the six million Jews during the World War II by Nazi Germany and generally people really don’t know about it. It is ironic because while persuading his associates that a Jewish holocaust would be tolerated by the west, Adolf Hitler said the following and he was right:

Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?

Events of such magnitude cannot be explained in one article so for readers who are further interested in knowing about what took place in the Ottoman Empire during that time, should have a look at the following:

1. Great War for Civilization: The conquest of the Middle East – By Robert Fisk (Chapter 10)
2. Subjects of the Sultan: Culture and Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire – by Suraiya Faroqhi
3. The Knock at the Door: A Journey through the Darkness of the Armenian Genocide – by Margaret Ajemian Ahnert
4. A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility – by Taner Akçam
5. Survivors: An Oral History Of The Armenian Genocide – by  Donald E. Miller and Lorna Touryan Miller

also published @ Armenian genocide: Millions killed and forgotten – The Express Tribune Blog.

Confessions of the Ignorant Cleric

 

A million questions clog my mind

A million anxieties fill my heart

My wits etched in stone, intuition based on lies

A million worries bleed my soul

I am tired, I am spent, I am weak

A million visions darken my hope

I kill for God, I rape for lust

I am angry at my being, jealous and envious

A million maggots stuff my crust

I scream and shout God is Great

I need to stop breathing, I can’t wait

A million lives I will love to bait

I hate the other color, I hate the other sex

I hate the other religion, I am the best

A million lies rust my spirit

Who do you think I am, a demon or a Saint? A monster or a prophet?

Ladies and Gentlemen, put your hands together for I am The Ignorant Cleric

We Muslims are the best – Are we not?

This great country, Pakistan, provided a sanctuary for the minority of the subcontinent. Yes, this great country, whose great leader told everyone that go to your temples, worship as you want. Such a fantastic country! Everybody has their rights. Christians go to Church, have Sunday mass. Hindus go to their temples worship whoever they want. So much happiness! Minorities have heaven in the shape of Pakistan. We Muslims protect them. We give them seats in the parliament. Yes, it’s a great opportunity for them to mingle with us righteous Muslims in the parliament. Yes! we let them sit with us. Have a nap or two in the parliament with us. Such a heaven!

Us magnificent Muslims give them jobs, oh yes, even jobs. We try and make it specialized for them. So we pushed them to the margins of the society so that they can clean up our gutters and sewage. It’s a specialized skill isn’t it? We are doing them a favor aren’t we? Oh we are such beautiful people. We care so much. We bomb a church or a temple. Yeah, they require renovations anyway. It’s a favor isn’t it? Burn a Christian or two alive, what difference does it make, we did them a favor, they will go to heaven.  So many favors we do.

If they say something against us, oh yeah, we put them in jail, death penalty and all that. Who wants these poor illiterate people speaking up their mind? Yeah we do them a favor. They get our finest police food in the prison, some punches, some whips, some rape. Yeah it’s a favor, food, work-out, and sex, all the excitement you need in one place.

Oh I forgot our beloved Ahmadi or Qadiani. We had the honor to turn them into a minority because we wanted to treat them so much better. We made beautiful laws for their easiness. They are not allowed to call any person Ameer ul Momineen (leader of all the Muslims) besides the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and the actual Caliphs. They can’t even say Razi Allah unho (may God be please with him). Yeah it’s a favor. Who needs so much formality, if they want to pray for someone that God be please with them, they don’t have to, it’s all good, it OK. We call Mullah Umer of Taliban Ameer ul Momineen but we are the beautiful Muslims; we can do anything we want. They cant call their place of worship a “Masjid”, we proactive Muslims have patented this word with God, so even though Masjid mean a place of prostration, we Muslims, try to save them the trouble, because God might send them to hell, so if they use it we put them in jail, remember the heavenly place with all the free food, work-out and sex. Three years of all that, we are so good to them.

They are not allowed to propagate their faith, why should they? They should just sit and relax at home. We can do all the propagating; they don’t want to walk around door to door, fly around the world talk about their religion. No No, its OK, they should sit at home have some tea. And if they do get caught propagating, we send them to that heavenly jail – free food, work-out and sex. We are so great. Yes we have such big hearts; there is nothing wrong with us. It’s the world that is against us. It is a Zionist conspiracy. We are poor because of the Zionists, we are corrupt because of the Zionists. We kill people for religion because it is the fault of the Zionists. Actually we are the best, the beautiful people. There is nothing wrong with us. We put our women at home, hit them, kill them, and rape them for honor. We are actually very honorable people. It’s the Zionists who spread the bad word about us.

It is not only Pakistan. We are so honorable that we fight each other all around the world also. Oh yes we do. We like our small pieces of land. Allah has given us so much Oil, so much money. But why should we spend that money on poor people  and minorities, they don’t want the money, money is too much stress, we don’t want to give them stress, we just make huge buildings with it, 800m in Dubai, 1km in Jeddah, oh yes so much tension and stress, we don’t want to give it to the poor and the minorities. Gaza and West Bank burns. Let it burn. It doesn’t concern us. We are fighting each other for honor and all that sort of thing. Gaza and West Bank has nothing to do with us anyway. It’s the Zionist fault. Nothing to do with us! We are pure, innocent, honorable, considerate, peaceful, and perfect. There is nothing wrong with us. It’s the Zionist’s fault. We are the best.

Will Israelis call West Bank ‘home’ someday?

I was sitting in the botanical gardens in Christchurch enjoying a great day in the sun, far away from the guns and the dead of Karachi. I was reading an article by Robert Fisk on my laptop about his memories in Lebanon triggered by Max Milligan’s new book at the Independent’s website. I finished the article and moved on to the Middle East page to read other news about Iranian president’s sudden eureka moment about a girl’s ideal marrying age to be between 16 and 18, and Pakistan denying permission to the US about expanding the drone target area (which I am sure the US will pay no heed to). While I am rolling a cigarette for myself, a Maori (New Zealand native) kid of about 12 years of age asks me for a cigarette. I tell him to bugger off, and he skates away angrily mumbling racial slurs.

This meaningless event suddenly makes my heart sink like I have just heard some very bad news, but it is not because of the racial nature of the event or the bad condition of the Maori kid. This event makes me remember something I just read in Fisk’s article and I quickly go back to it and read the following again:

One day – speak it not in Lebanon, of course – these Palestinians or their children may also become Lebanese. That, of course, will be the day that the Americans and Israelis finally obliterate the Palestinians’ UN-mandated “right of return”, when Lebanon will have to be paid billions to give them passports – the Lebanese, I fear, might accept – and when Lebanon will become (because the Palestinians are mostly Sunnis, with only a sprinkling of Christians who have their own camp in east Beirut) an undeniably Muslim country.

I understand that he is trying to make a different point there but the Maori kid and the above lines trigger a peculiar line of thought in my head. Let me try to put this thought in a logical manner. You must know that the Maori were here in New Zealand a long time before the European settlers came. These settlers started to colonize the land, which was not acceptable to the native Maoris. Time passed and (I would not dwell upon what happened in the middle) now one can see that these native people are a small part of the population. This land has become a home of the settlers after so many years. Generations of settlers have grown old and died here so now it’s the settler’s, (Pakeha) country. At this stage to tell a settler Kiwi to move from a house claiming it to be Maori land 300-400 years back would be barbaric and cruel because the settler has lived there for hundreds of years. His father, grandfather, great grandfather all owned the same place. The settler has now become a native and the world recognizes it.
Similarly in Australia the natives are the aborigines, the indigenous people of Australia. The settler has become a native and the world recognizes it. Same is case in North America. The real American is called the Native American and the settler is the real American now. In all three cases, the Maori accepts it, the aborigine accepts it, and the Native American accepts it. Time has made a foreign land become home to a settler. For instance, a UN Resolution asking Australian Settlers to leave the continent because it was colonized and taken from the native people will be thrown in the bin.
Now I will come to the point. The Israeli settlements in West Bank are increasing by the day. The world recognizes it as illegal but cannot do anything about it. So they continue to increase. Let’s say 300 years pass by. The settlements have doubled or tripled as compared to the present and the owner of a settlement house is third or fourth generation settler. He can now say that we have lived here for hundreds of years. This is my grandfather’s house. It would cruel to kick him out. It would be madness to ask someone to leave his grandfather’s house at that particular time in the future. My questions are:

Will time make a settler in an occupied land a native in the case of West Bank also?

Will the refugees in Lebanon and Jordan become Lebanese and Jordanian and there would be not be anyone to come back?

In 300 year will the occupied people of become the “Maori” or the Aborigine of Israel?

Will the world recognize a settler to be a native again?

I don’t think it is a question of Jews, Christian, or Muslims. It’s a human thing. Looking at the Jewish suffering for so many years, it is understandable that they would grab so tightly to the land that they own plus the land they have acquired by occupation. If it were Muslims, they would do the same thing, if it were Christians or anyone, they would do the same. It’s a human thing. Furthermore, greed, power, ego, honor, and jealousy are also “human things”. We are all infected by these, specially the Muslim world. I think we will resort to violence against each other, we will keep pulling each other’s legs, and we will keep drowning in the sectarian divisions we create. Sunni will hate Shia, Shia will hate Sunni, The Arab will hate the Persian and so on and so forth. Our pious leaders will keep sitting on their thrones; the poor will get poorer and dehumanized. And suddenly we will wake up one morning, and 300 years would have passed. The settler will become a native in West Bank and Gaza. Our own darkness of forgetting our humanity will be the cause of it. The settler will become a native again, world will recognize it and we will all be poking fingers in each other’s eyes, blaming everyone but our own selves.

*edited version published at Express Tribune Pakistan website @ http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/3548/will-israelis-call-west-bank-home-someday/ *

Ignorant Educated Mind

In this vastly uneducated country one should see educated people as a glimmer of hope, a silver lining of an immensely dark cloud that hovers over Pakistan. This minute percentage of people is supposed to change the society and bring prosperity to our corruption infested country. But this so called broad mind is as narrow as any illiterate mind.

We as a country have a deeply rooted sectarian mind. Alas! We have given into hatred. We hate the Sindhi, we hate the Punjabi, we hate the Pathan, we hate the Baluchi, we hate the shia, we hate the sunni, we hate Ahmadi. We have drawn deep sectarian boundaries and base our judgments on a person’s past. We are hypocrites because we publically say that we love a brother from another sect, but in the confines of your own sect we call him a “bed bug” (shiites), a “homosexual” (pathans), a “parrot” (the green turban wearing sect called Ahle Hadees) and countless other names. We differentiate a person on the basis of the “topi” he wears or the way he offers his prayers, the way he grows his beard, or the way she covers her head. We feel proud when talking about the inequities of the Hindu society, but we ignore your own black hearts. So firstly, we are devided on the basis of religion, secondly, we are devided on the bases of different castes, thirdly, we are devided on the basis of the province we belong to, and lastly, race fits in somewhere between the factors that I have mentioned. This kind of hatred is present in the uneducated class but I have experienced this in our educated elite.

A prime example: In the 70s movement against the Qadianis (Ahmadi), the whole country was bent on declaring them non muslims, a minority, as if we hold a monopoly over Islam. And the parliament passed it into a law. If you ask someone about the Ahmadi belief they would not know more than ‘They donot believe in the finality of the Prophet’ in reality it’s a bit more complicated than that. OK we think they are Non-Muslims but are they not HUMAN BEINGS and citizens of Pakistan. So today we have forgotten our only national hero that we can boast about – Dr Abdus Salam. The 1st muslim to win a nobel prize for Physics. He has now become just one of the scientists we read about in our Physics books in school we have fogotton him because of his religion. And today we have heroes like Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan and we deny Dr Abdus Salam. So nomatter how much money we spend on Oxford University Education., we will still remain ignorant.

Our courts ban Google of all places. Don’t our learned judges know that Google is just a search engine? No No wait, Google is created by the west, oh well then definitely it’s a Zionist Ploy against all Muslims. Our religion leaders keep quite on the massacre of doctors on the basis of religion. This educated mind is ignorant about history also. Few people know about Armenia and the Ottoman Barbarianism. If I ask someone, “what do you think about the Ottoman Empire?”, the answer I get is that the Empire was the last Golden Age for Muslims, the last khilafat, completely ignorant of the fact that the Ottoman pushed the Arabs into the Darkness, The Ottoman committed genocide of the 1.5 million Armenians. We have refused to acknowledge our past and collectively developed a mentality of ‘We are the best’ which is a deadly fallacy.

But still I have a glimmer of hope as I see people coming to help the dead and wounded in the aftermath of a suicide attack or an accident. This is the only time I see a human helping another human and not a Shia helping a Shia or a Sindhi helping a Sindhi.

*Ignore the above paragraph now – after the Sialkot incident I am convinced that our hearts are as numb as dead fish, so I do not see any glimmer of hope, not in my lifetime.

P.S – Yes I know I will get the criticism well why don’t you say anything against the West. My answer to that is the West have their own critics in Robert Fisk, Patrick Cockburn, Norman Finklestein. We need our own critics, we need to gain own humanity back before we point out to others. Education (not Ammunition) is the answer.

”You have failed me miserably” – Muhammed Ali Jinnah, 21st Feb 2010

Most Un-respected President, Ignorant Ladies and Idiot Gentlemen,

I abhorrently regret, with utmost sincerity, that I was elected the First Governor General of this country 63 years ago. I am extremely ashamed of the fact that I fought with my life for the creation of this state. My life is meaningless, but what about the Millions of bodies cut down for the independence? 63 years ago I told you in simple language about your responsibilities. I gave you the vision of the future, a vision of hope, peace, solidarity, tolerance, unity, faith, and discipline.

I said to you specifically, that it is your first and foremost duty as a government is to maintain law and order, so that the life, property, and religious beliefs of its subjects are fully protected by the state.

But you have failed me miserably.

Your people are unsafe, while you sit in your castle and barracks. Your people call each other by names with inherent hatred. Crime runs wild on your street while you eat the fruits of those crimes. You talk, talk, and talk while your subjects lay dead on the streets.

63 years ago, I told you, one of the biggest curses “is bribery and corruption. That really is a poison. We must put that down with an iron hand and I hope that you will take adequate measures as soon as it is possible for this Assembly to do so.” I expressed my hate for nepotism and jobbery.

But you have failed me miserably.

Alas! Your pockets are filled with the bribes and corruption that I talked about. You take bribes, skim money from government projects, while your subjects rot in the fields with poisoned water. This impurity of corruption has poisoned your blood to the extent that you shamelessly rationalize it as it is your God Given Right.

I can’t go on any longer about the inefficiency of you as a government as it breaks my heart and fill me with anger. You are responsible for the death of my vision and the thousands dead on your streets and fields. Now I will address your subject, the people of Pakistan, for they have disappointed me also.

My Brothers and sisters,

Yes, you have been ruled by dishonesty and corruption. Yes, the inefficiency of your government has let you down. But this does not absolve you of the crimes that you commit. 63 years ago I told you, “If you will work in co-operation, forgetting the past, burying the hatchet, you are bound to succeed. If you change your past and work together in a spirit that everyone of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what is his colour, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges, and obligations, there will be on end to the progress you will make”.

I also said “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan…….. And you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State”.

But You have failed me miserably.

Alas! You have given into hatred. You hate the Sindhi, you hate the Punjabi, you hate the Pathan, and you hate the Baluchi. You have drawn deep sectarian boundaries and you base your judgment on a person’s past. You burn churches and you burn temples. You are hypocrites, while you publically say you love a brother from another sect, but in the confines of your own sect you call him a “bed bug”, a “homosexual”, a “parrot” and countless other names. You differentiate a person on the basis of the “topi” he wears or the way he offers his prayers, the way he grows his beard, or the way she covers her head. You feel proud when talking about the inequities of the Hindu society, but you ignore your own black hearts. You say I will not marry a shia, I will not marry a sunni, I will not marry an Aghakhani, I will not marry a barelwi, I will not marry a Arain, I will not marry a Sheikh, I will not marry a Sindhi. Shame on you because with this hatred in your heart you let the corrupt exploit you and you follow them blindly.

Alas! When you celebrate you Independence, at the same time you celebrate your impotence. I see it on television. You show bombs, soldiers, my tomb, war, and buildings, and valleys. You celebrate war with pride while at the same time you ignore the greatest of your nation on the basis of religious and sectarian boundaries. Yes I saw it with horror when you shamelessly forgot the Nobel Prize winner just because of his religion.

Didn’t you listen to what I said 63 years ago? Why would I ask a Hindu to write the first national anthem? Do you still know what I wanted for my country?

At the end I would just say one thing and I have no hope that you will remember it,

‘I believe my vision died with me, and my hope rots with me in my grave’

Jinnah